CULLOWHEE, N.C. — A RBI single in the bottom of the 10th sealed the deal on Saturday afternoon as the Stony Brook baseball team fell 9-8 to Western Carolina to even the weekend at a game apiece.
The Seawolves had an 8-7 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth but a game-saving, home-run robbing catch in right field by
Adam Kuzmicki turned into a sacrifice fly that tied the game.
Into the 10th, the Catamounts drew a walk to get the winning run on base. After a wild pitch moved him into scoring position, the single scored him for the victory.
The Seawolves used early scoring to jump out to an 8-4 lead at the game's midway mark.
Shane Paradine reached on an run-scoring error and then scored on
Evan Giordano's sacrifice fly to make it 2-0.
After Western Carolina scored three to take the lead, back to back RBI doubles from
Brett Paulsen and
Matt Brown-Eiring tied the game and
Cole Durkan gave Stony Brook the lead with a RBI single to right center.
Giordano added two more in the fourth with a double and Paulsen added a run-scoring single in the fifth to make it 8-4 before the hosts scored five unanswered to steal away the win.
STATS AND NOTES
- The Seawolves offense posted season-highs in runs (8), hits (13), doubles (5) and stolen bases (7).
- Giordano's three-RBI day is his first game with multiple runs batted in this season. He led the team with 12 such performances in 2021.
- Stanton Leuthner extended his team-high hitting streak to nine games.
- Paradine engineered his third, multi-hit game of the season with a 2-for-6 effort. That leads the team.
- Paulsen's three-hit day is the most on the year.
- In 6.2 innings of relief, Brandon Lashley more than doubled his season innings total, now sitting at 12.2. It is the longest outing of his Seawolves career.
QUOTES FROM THE SEAWOLVES
"Congratulations to WCU on their comeback win. We could have made it a lot harder on them if we added on a few more runs of the seven we left in scoring position. This includes us gonig scoreless over the last four innings of the game. However, if we come out with the effort and competitiveness that
Brandon Lashley displayed today, we will have a heck of a chance to win this series tomorrow." - head coach
Matt Senk.
UP NEXT
Game three of this set will be tomorrow afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
For an inside look at the Stony Brook baseball program, be sure to follow it on
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